Web to phone contact information messaging system

ABSTRACT

A method of transmitting contact information to an approved mobile communication device includes receiving an input representative of desired contact information located on a first web page and an input representative of the identity of a desired mobile communication device. The method also includes saving information representative of the desired contact information in a contact information database. The method also includes determining whether the desired mobile communication device is an approved device and transmitting to the desired mobile communication device information representative of a notification to send the information representative of the desired contact information. The method also includes receiving an input from the desired mobile communication device information representative of an acceptance to receive the information representative of the desired contact information, and transmitting to the desired mobile communication device information representative of the desired contact information.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. application Ser. No.11/306,336, filed on Dec. 23, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,343; and ofU.S. application Ser. No. 12/122,705, filed May 18, 2008; thedisclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to management of contact information; morespecifically to method, system, means and apparatus for sending contactinformation published on a web page directly to mobile communicationdevices.

BACKGROUND

It is a common practice for businesses to have a presence on theinternet via a web site. This practice enables businesses to reach outto an ever-growing base of customers who do commerce on the interne. Itis also a common practice for businesses to publish their contactinformation on their web pages. The published contact informationusually contains business name, phone number, fax number, email andstreet address. This gives customers the means to contact the saidbusinesses by multiple means including email, phone, fax, mail and inperson. It is a common practice in web commerce for customers to lookfor a product online and then subsequently purchase the said product byanother means such as by making a phone call, faxing or mailing an orderform or by visiting a retail outlet in person. In order to remember thecontact information of a business published on a web page, a customerhas to either 1) print the web page containing the said business'scontact information; 2) write it manually on a piece of paper or; 3)enter it manually into a mobile phone such as a mobile phone. This is acumbersome and time consuming way to remember contact information;especially when a customer has to remember contact information ofmultiple businesses. There is no invention in the prior art that enablescustomers to send a contact information published on a web page directlyto communication devices such as mobile phones; and thereafter integratethe said contact information into the contact list of the said mobilephone without requiring the customer to enter the said contactinformation manually into the communication device.

SUMMARY

The present invention relates to means, methods, system and apparatus tosend contact information published on a web page to mobile communicationdevice and automatically save the received contact information into thecontact list of the mobile communication device. Additionally theinvention relates to management of contact information thus saved in thecontact list of mobile communication devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are illustrative embodiments. The drawings are notnecessarily to scale and certain features may be removed, exaggerated,moved, or partially sectioned for clearer illustration. The embodimentsillustrated herein are not intended to limit or restrict the claims.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of sending contact information(11A) published in a web page (10) to a mobile communication device(13); and thereafter saving the contact information into the nativecontact list (12) of the mobile communication device, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 2A shows the structure of the ‘web contact information from’ (11)and a schematic representation of the transfer of data entered into the‘web contact information form’ (11) into corresponding data fields ofthe ‘server contact information’ database (22). It also shows thegeneration of a link (23) responsive to an entry in the ‘server contactinformation’ database (22); the link (23) comprising of an embedded coderepresentative of the location of the corresponding contact information(24) in the ‘server contact information’ database (22).

FIG. 2B shows an interface (21) contained in the ‘mobile phone’application that seamlessly enters data received in mobile communicationdevice from ‘server contact information’ database (22) intocorresponding data fields of the contact list (12) of the mobilecommunication device.

FIG. 2C shows exemplary data fields for a user account within a useraccount database, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows link (23) displayed next to corresponding contactinformation (11A) published on web page and the command prompt (31) thatis displayed upon selecting the link (23) prompting user to enter thereceiving mobile communication device number (entered at the commandprompt 31).

FIG. 4A shows the method of attaching an advertisement (40) containingone or more of data (40A), voice (40B), image (40C) and/or video (40D)files to the contact information (11A) published on a web page andthereafter sending the said contact information (11A) along with theattached advertisement (40) to a mobile communication device (13). FIG.4A also shows the display of contact information (11A) and thecorresponding advertisement (40) on the mobile communication device(13).

FIG. 4B shows the method of attaching an advertisement (40) containingone or more of data (40A), voice (40B), image (40C) and/or video (40D)files to a contact information (11A) published on a web page where theattachment of the advertisement (40) takes place while the correspondingcontact information (11A) is in transit to a receiving mobilecommunication device (13). FIG. 4B also shows the display of contactinformation (11A) and the corresponding advertisement (40) on the mobilecommunication device (13).

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of sending information (51)published on a web page (10) to a mobile communication device (13); andthereafter saving and displaying information (51) on mobilecommunication device (13).

FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the process of sending contactinformation from web page to an application naïve mobile communicationdevice.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of the process of sending contactinformation from web page to an application experienced mobilecommunication device.

FIGS. 8A-G show schematic representations of the structure of variousdatabases according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In this respect; before explaining at least one embodiment of theinvention in detail; it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited in its application to the details of construction and to thearrangements of the components set forth in the following description orillustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of otherembodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminologyemployed herein are for the purpose of description and should not beregarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily beutilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods andsystems for carrying out one or several purposes of the presentinvention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded asincluding such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not departfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention.

It is a common practice for businesses to publish their contactinformation on one or more web sites. The purpose of this practice is toenable customers to easily contact them. The published contactinformation usually contains name, phone number, fax number, email andstreet address of the business. At the present time, contact informationis published on a web page using free text, usually using HTMLprogramming language. There is no standard format or template forpublishing contact information; consequently each web page has itsunique format and template for publishing contact information.Presently, to save contact information displayed on a web page, customeris required to manually write down the contact information on paper orprint the web page containing the contact information and manually enterthe contact information into mobile communication device. This is atedious and cumbersome process and many users choose not to save contactinformation published on a web page into mobile communication device.

Components of an embodiment include: 1) a server application hosted on aserver; 2) a mobile phone application downloadable from the server andhosted on a plurality of the mobile communication device; 3) a contactinformation database in the server receiving data entered into ‘webcontact information’ form published on a web page; and 4) a contact listhosted in each mobile communication device. When a user signs up for theservice, a user account is created in the server ‘user account’database, as shown in FIGS. 2C & 8E. The server ‘user account’ databasemay include the user name, password, user demographics (such as userage, education level, etc.) and contact information that user desires todownload from the web page. The user enters the contact information tobe displayed on the web page into a ‘web contact information form’ (11)as shown in FIG. 2A. The ‘web contact information form’ (11) serves as adata entry portal for data contained in server contact informationdatabase (22) saved in the server; as shown in FIG. 2A. Server contactinformation database (22) is created using a database program like MSSQL, My SQL; or into any other suitable database program. The type ofsoftware used to create the server contact information database (22)should not be considered limiting as many software programs can be usedto achieve the same end result. The ‘web contact information form’ (11)contains data fields for business name, business category, phone number,fax number, email, web page uniform resource locator (URL) and streetaddress and any additional fields deemed desirable. The data fieldsshould not be considered limiting as it can be customized according toindividual needs. Means is provided to distribute the ‘web contactinformation form’ (11) over the Internet to programmers, web masters andother individuals responsible for designing and programming web pages.Contact information entered into ‘web contact information form’ (11) ispreferably displayed on the contact information page of a web site. Inthe preferred embodiment, ‘web contact information form’ is web pagespecific, i.e. when a ‘web contact information form’ is generated itcontains a web page specific code whereby the ‘web contact informationform’ and representative contact information data can only be displayedon the corresponding web page. Once contact information data is enteredinto ‘web contact information form’ it is saved into corresponding entryin the server contact information database (22, 24) as shown in FIG. 2A.The server application generates a link (23) with embedded coderepresentative of the location of the corresponding contact information(24) in the server contact information database (22), also shown in FIG.2A. In the preferred method, the link (23) is displayed in closeproximity to the corresponding contact information on a web page asshown in FIG. 3. When the link (23) is activated on the web page; useris prompted to enter the receiving mobile communication device numberi.e. phone number (31) as shown in FIG. 3, where after the embedded codecontained in the link (23) directs the user request to appropriate entry(24) in the server contact information database (22) as shown in FIG.2A.

As shown in FIG. 2B, once contact information (24) is entered into theserver contact information database (22), the server application maygenerate a ‘custom web URL’ (25) for the contact information (24). Whencontact information (24) is transmitted to and saved into the contactlist (12) in the mobile communication device (13), a corresponding‘custom web URL’ (26) may be saved as well. In one preferred method, webpage corresponding to the ‘custom web URL’ (25, 26) is, hosted in theserver. Alternatively, web page corresponding to the ‘custom web URL’(25, 26) is hosted on another server. When user activates the ‘customweb URL’ (26) within the mobile communication device, the request istransmitted to the server. The server application contains program codeto forward the ‘custom web URL’ (26) to corresponding web page. In thepreferred embodiment the server application also contains program codeto block forwarding of the ‘custom web URL’ (26) to corresponding webpage with certain pre determined filters—such as when the correspondingweb page contains unlawful content; when payment for forwarding the‘custom web URL’ to corresponding web page has not been received etc.According to yet another embodiment of the invention; the mobile phoneapplication contains program code that records instances of web linkactivation from within the contact list of mobile communication device.The mobile phone application may contain program code to communicate atleast one of i) instances of web link activation; ii) unique mobilecommunication device identifier (UDID); iii) corresponding contactinformation ID; and iv) mobile communication device number (phonenumber) to the server. Further, this data may be communicated atpredetermined intervals or after preselected occurrences, or at otherdesired instances. The server application may save all instances of weblink activation data received from mobile communication devices into‘web link activation’ database; as shown in FIG. 8G. This data may beused to charge user or vendor for each instance of web link activation;i.e. pay per click. One or more reports based on data contained in the‘web link activation’ database in the server may be generated.

A contact list (12) is provided for mobile communication devices and isshown in FIG. 2B. The contact list (12) may be created using a softwareand database program suitable for the corresponding mobile phone and isusually native to the communication device. One example of such programis Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). Most mobile phones can run Java programwith MIDP supported. (MIDP: Mobile Information Device Profile). Thenewer phones support MIDP2.0 while some older phones only supportMIDP1.2/1.1. The type of software program used to create the contactlist (12) should not considered limiting as more than one softwareprogram can be used to achieve the desired results. Means may beprovided to distribute the contact list (12) to one or more mobilecommunication devices over the Internet, wireless network or any othernetwork. Alternatively, the contact list (12) is pre loaded into mobilecommunication device at the point of manufacture wherein it forms thenative contact list of the mobile communication device. An interface(21), as shown in FIG. 2B, may be provided in the mobile phoneapplication to download, synchronize, and integrate data between thecorresponding data fields of the server contact information database(22) and the contact list (12). In an exemplary method, the contact list(12) is the native contact list of the mobile communication device.Further, the data fields in the ‘contact list’ (12) may be identical tothe data fields contained in the ‘web contact information form’ (11) andthe server contact information database (22). As shown in FIG. 2B, thedata fields in the contact list (12) consist of business name, businesscategory, phone number, fax number, email, web page URL and streetaddress. Also shown in FIG. 2B is an interface (21) which is a part ofthe mobile phone application hosted in the mobile communication device.The mobile phone application is created to enable seamless interfacingand integration of contact information data between the ‘web contactinformation form’ (11), server contact information database (22) and thecontact list (12) of the mobile communication device.

FIGS. 1 and 3 show the steps involved in sending contact informationpublished on a web page to a mobile communication device. FIG. 1 is aschematic representation of one embodiment of the present invention.Contact information (11A) is published on a web page (10). As shown inFIG. 3, the embedded link/icon (23) is pasted next to the contactinformation (11A) on the web page. According to the preferred method,when user selects the link/icon (23), the user is prompted to enter thereceiving mobile communication device number (31) (for example, themobile phone number or any other identifying data). Then the user mayselect (click) the link 23 or otherwise submit the request to downloadthe contact information on the receiving mobile communication device.The user request is then transmitted to the server (60) application(hosted in the server) via a communication link (step 1 of FIGS. 6 and7).

Turning our attention to FIG. 6, when user request from web page isreceived in the server (61), the server application checks the receivingmobile communication device number (such as, for example the mobilephone number) in the request against the ‘application experienced mobilecommunication devices’ database (30, FIG. 8B) containing list of mobilecommunication devices where the ‘mobile phone’ application has alreadybeen downloaded. Mobile phone application is hosted in the server and isdownloadable into mobile communication devices over a communicationlink. Server application contains ‘application experienced mobilecommunication devices’ database (30, FIG. 8B) which stores list ofmobile communication devices where ‘mobile phone’ application has beendownloaded. If the server application determines the receiving mobilecommunication device is application naïve, the mobile communicationdevice number (phone number) and the corresponding contact informationrequested to be sent are saved in a ‘pending contact information’database the server 62, 23 (FIG. 8A). Thereafter, the server (60)application sends a message (short message service (SMS) or pushnotification) to the receiving mobile communication device (63); themessage comprising of a user prompt and a link to the server (60)hosting the downloadable mobile phone application. In the current mobilearchitecture, push notification cannot be sent to application naïvemobile communication devices; hence at this step a SMS message is sent.SMS message can be sent either by SMS gateway or email gateway i.e.using the phone email address such as phone_number@wirelesscarrier.com.According to one method, the server application is programmed upondetermining the receiving mobile communication device to be applicationnaïve to ask the user for wireless carrier ID at the time when phonenumber is entered after activation of the link/icon (23). Alternativelyuser may be asked to enter wireless carrier ID every time a request issent from web page. The message prompts the user to download the mobilephone application into the mobile communication device from the server(64). The mobile phone application comprises of program code to extractunique mobile communication device ID (UDID) and/or device number (phonenumber) from internal memory of the mobile communication device; andtransmit that data to the server (65). Additionally, the mobile phoneapplication contains program code to send a successful download signalto the server (65) once the application is successfully downloaded intothe mobile communication device (13). Using the mobile device number(phone number) as the identifying parameter, the server application mayintegrate the unique mobile device ID (UDID) with the correspondingmobile device number (phone number) and the corresponding pendingcontact information in the ‘pending contact information’ database (66,23, FIG. 8A). Additionally, the server application may save the mobilecommunication device ID (UDID) and corresponding mobile communicationdevice number (phone number) into the ‘application experienced mobilecommunication devices’ database 30 (FIG. 8B) in the server. The‘application experienced mobile communication devices’ database 30 (FIG.8B) contains a list of mobile communication devices where mobile phoneapplication has been successfully downloaded. Once the serverapplication receives confirmation of download of mobile phoneapplication in the receiving mobile communication device (13); theserver application may send the corresponding pending contactinformation in the ‘pending contact information’ database (23, FIG. 8A)to the mobile communication device (13) such as by SMS or by pushnotification (67) or other suitable transmission.

Now turning our attention to FIG. 7, if upon receiving request from webpage (71), server application determines from ‘application experiencedmobile communication devices’ database (30, FIG. 8B) that the receivingmobile communication device is application experienced (72); serverapplication sends a message (such as by push notification or SMS) to thereceiving mobile communication device via a push notification server/SMSserver (74); and at the same time saves the request in the ‘pendingcontact information’ database (73, 23, FIG. 8A). When the pushnotification/SMS is accepted by the user, the mobile phone applicationis launched on the mobile communication device, where after the mobilephone application pulls contact information destined for correspondingmobile communication device from the server (75, 76). The mobile phoneapplication then integrates and saves contact information into thecontact list of the mobile communication device. Preferably serverapplication contains program code to determine the wireless carrier andoperating system of the receiving mobile communication device prior toinitiating communication with the mobile communication device. Mostwireless carriers require users to download mobile phone applicationfrom their native server. According to one embodiment, in such asituation, the wireless carrier server contains program code tocommunicate unique mobile communication device ID (such as the UDID) andmobile communication device number (phone number; which it receives upondownload of mobile phone application into the mobile communicationdevice) to the server at predetermined intervals or after preselectedoccurrences, or at other desired instances. It is hoped that in a futureopen environment, the mobile phone application will be downloaded intomobile communication devices directly from the server. For the sake ofsimplicity, the term server used in the application should be consideredto encompass all servers; including wireless carrier server. It is alsopreferred that the mobile phone application extracts and communicatesunique mobile communication device ID (UDID) to server at each instanceof communication with server.

The server application may contain program code (instructions) tocapture each instance of download of contact information from serverinto mobile communication devices. The server application saves theseinstances of download of contact information into a ‘contact informationexperienced mobile communication devices’ database in the user accountcorresponding to contact information; as shown in FIG. 8C. In analternate embodiment mobile phone application contains program code toping the server application with mobile communication device ID (UDID),mobile communication device number (phone number) and contactinformation ID, where after the server application saves the datasetinto the ‘contact information experienced mobile communication devices’database (FIG. 8C). The ‘contact information experienced mobilecommunication devices’ database is useful to businesses that want tosend a targeted ad campaign to users who have already downloaded theircontact information into their mobile communication devices. Such as adcampaign may be SMS or multimedia messaging service (MMS) based; and maycontain one or combination of text, image, video and audio files.

The mobile phone application may contain program code that recordsinstances of contact information retrieval and activation from withinthe contact list of the corresponding mobile communication device.Instances of contact information activation may include—making a phonecall, opening email client/URL within the contact information, etc. Themobile phone application may contain program code to communicate atleast one of i) instances of contact information retrieval andactivation; ii) unique mobile communication device ID (UDID); iii)contact information ID; and/or iv), mobile communication device number(phone number) to the server at predetermined intervals. The serverapplication saves all instances of contact information activation frommobile devices into ‘contact information activation’ database in theuser account corresponding to the activated contact information in theserver; as shown in FIG. 8F. Similarly, the server application saves allinstances of contact information retrieval from mobile devices into‘contact information retrieval’ database in the user accountcorresponding to the retrieved contact information in the server; asshown in FIG. 8D. This data reflects use of contact information sentfrom web page to mobile communication devices by end user. One or morereports may be generated from the data contained in the ‘contactinformation activation’ and ‘contact information retrieval’ databases.According to one preferred report, activation and retrieval data foreach contact information is ranked according to total instances ofactivation and retrieval on all mobile communication devices where saidcontact information is saved. The ‘contact information activation’ and‘contact information retrieval’ database is useful to businesses thatwant to send a targeted ad campaign to mobile communication device userswho have downloaded and activated/retrieved their contact information intheir mobile communication devices. Such as ad campaign may be SMS orMMS based; and may contain one or combination of text, image, video andaudio files

When a contact information is updated in the server, a message (pushnotification, SMS, or other desirable means) is sent to all mobilecommunication devices where said contact information is saved; usingdata contained in the ‘contact information experienced mobilecommunication devices’ database as shown in FIG. 8C. Once the message(push notification or SMS) is accepted by the user, the mobile phoneapplication is launched on the mobile communication device, where afterthe mobile phone application downloads the updated version of thecontact information from the server. The mobile phone application thenreplaces the older version of the contact information with the updatedversion in the contact list of the mobile communication device.

When a updated version of the mobile phone application is available inthe server, a message (push notification/SMS) is sent to all mobilecommunication devices where said contact information is saved; usingdata contained in the ‘application experienced mobile communicationdevices’ database (FIG. 8B). Once the message (push notification or SMS)is accepted by the user, the mobile phone application is launched on themobile communication device, where after the mobile phone applicationdownloads the updated version of the mobile phone application from theserver. The updated version of the mobile phone application thenreplaces the older version in the mobile communication device.

Means may be provided in the mobile communication device to executemeaningful applications based on the contact information contained inthe ‘contact list’. One example of such meaningful application is autodialing of a phone number contained in contact information. Anotherexample of such meaningful application is to establish connection to aweb page URL contained in contact information without requiring thecaller to type the said URL into a web browser on his/her communicationdevice.

In addition to data, means is provided to attach voice, images and videofiles to the ‘web contact information template’. This can be done usingexisting programming tools and formats such as windows media audio forvoice; jpg, gif or tiff for images; and windows media & real for video.The software used to create an advertisement should not be consideredlimiting as other available software can also be used to create anadvertisement. This feature of the invention can be used to advertiseproducts and services of businesses in conjunction with contactinformation published on web sites. For example, an advertisementcomprising of data, voice and/or video files can be attached to contactinformation in the ‘web contact information template’ published in a webpage. When the said contact information is sent to a communicationdevice, the advertisement attached thereto is also sent. Means isprovided in the mobile communication device to save and/or display thesaid advertisement. The said advertisement is displayed when a callerselects or uses the corresponding contact information; as for examplewhen auto dialing a phone number contained therein.

According to one method of the invention; advertisement containing data,voice, image and/or video files is attached to contact informationpublished in a web page at the point of publication of the said contactinformation. The said advertisement is sent to a mobile communicationdevice when the corresponding contact information is. Means is providedin the mobile communication device to save and/or display the saidadvertisement. The said advertisement is displayed when the callerselects or uses the said contact information such said when auto dialinga phone number contained therein. Means is provided to updateadvertisements already saved in a mobile communication device as aresult. When contact information with an attached advertisement istransmitted to a communication device, the identity of the said mobilecommunication device is saved at a central location, such as a server. Anew or revised version of the said advertisement is created and sent toall such communication devices where the said contact information hasbeen previously saved. Appropriate software is provided in thecommunication devices to integrate the new or revised advertisement withthe corresponding contact information saved therein. Such software caneither be pre loaded into the communication devices or can be sent tocommunication devices separately, such as when the new or revisedadvertisement is sent. This feature, for example, can be used to send anew version an advertisement to communication devices having aparticular contact information saved in their contact list. An exampleof this method is shown in FIG. 4A. Contact information of ‘Wal-Mart’(11A) is published on its web page (10) using the ‘web contactinformation template’ (11). The contact information (11A has anadvertisement (40) containing data (40A), voice (40B), image (40C) andvideo (40D) files attached to it. The said advertisement (40) containsbrief information about Wal-Mart's promotional offers. When a user sendsWal-Mart's contact information (11A) from Wal-Mart's web page (10) tohis mobile communication device such as mobile communication device(13), the advertisement (40) attached to Wal-Mart's contact information(11A) is also sent to the said mobile communication device (13). Both,the contact information (11A) and the attached advertisement (40) isintegrated and saved in the said communication device. Furthermore, whena caller selects or uses Wal-Mart's contact information (11A); as forexample when auto dialing Wal-Mart's phone number on his mobilecommunication device (13); the attached Wal-Mart's advertisement (40) isdisplayed on the said mobile communication device (13).

According to another embodiment of a method, advertisements comprisingof data, voice, image and/or video files is attached to contactinformation while the said contact information is in transit to acommunication device. This method enables more customization of theadvertisement that is sent to a communication device. For example, anadvertiser can attach golf advertisements to a contact information intransit to the mobile communication device of a caller who is a golfplayer; and attach tennis advertisements when the said contactinformation is in transit to a caller who is a tennis player. An exampleof this method is shown in FIG. 4B. Contact information of ‘Wal-Mart’(11A) is published on its web page (10) using the ‘web contactinformation template’ (11). An advertisement (40) containing data (40A),voice (40B), image (40C) and video (40D) files contains briefinformation about Wal-Mart's promotional offers. When a user sendsWal-Mart's contact information (11A) from Wal-Mart's web page (10) tohis mobile communication device such as mobile communication device(13), the advertisement (40) is attached to Wal-Mart's contactinformation (11A) while the said contact information (11A) is in transitto the mobile communication device (13). The advertisement (40) is thensent to the mobile communication device (13) along with the contactinformation (11A). Both, the contact information (11A) and the attachedadvertisement (40) is integrated and saved in the said mobilecommunication device (13). Furthermore, when a caller selects or usesWal-Mart's contact information (11A); as for example when auto dialingWal-Mart's phone number; on his mobile communication device (13); theattached Wal-Mart's advertisement (40) is displayed on the mobilecommunication device (13).

According to yet another method, a package of advertisements comprisingof data, voice, image and/or video files are pre loaded or downloadedinto the communication devices. Said communication devices areprogrammed to play selected advertisements when a caller selects/usesselected contact information or selected category of contact informationsaved in the communication device. Alternatively, an .exe type file canbe attached to the contact information contained in the ‘web contactinformation template’; wherein the said .exe type file has means toprogram a mobile communication device to play select advertisements orcategory of advertisements saved therein; when a caller selects/uses thesaid contact information or selected category of contact information.Means is provided to change and update the association between anadvertisement and contact information. For example, a package ofmultiple advertisements containing an advertisement of Dell Computers ispre loaded or downloaded into a communication device. When a callersaves the contact information of Dell Computers in the saidcommunication device, it is programmed to display Dell Computers'advertisement when the contact information of Dell Computers isselected/used by the caller. Alternatively, the mobile communicationdevice can be programmed to display Dell's advertisement when the callerselects a different contact information.

These methods of advertisement of the present invention serve as apowerful means of targeted advertising; as the product and services isadvertised to a select and targeted customer base. In the illustratedexamples shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, promotional offers (40) of Wal-Martare advertised only to customers who have willingly saved Wal-Mart'scontact information (11A) in their communication devices (13).Additionally; promotional offers (40) at Wal-Mart is advertised to thesaid customer at the time when he/she is selects/uses the contactinformation of Wal-Mart (11A); such as when auto dialing a phone numbercontained therein. These features combined, in inventor's opinion, willresult in a significantly higher sales and revenue for businesses.

The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced andcarried out in various ways. As such, those skilled in the art willappreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, mayreadily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures,methods and systems for carrying out one or several purposes of thepresent invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims beregarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they donot depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Somevariations of the present inventions are: 1) Although the presentinvention relates to transmission of contact information from a web pageto communication devices; contact information from other sources like MSOutlook, Palm address book and the like can also be sent to one or morecommunication devices. 2) The present invention relates to methods andmeans of sending contact information published in a web page tocommunication devices. However, contact information published on a webpage can also be sent to contact management programs such as MS Outlook.3) In addition to contact information, other types of information can besent to communication devices similarly. For example, means and methodsof the present invention can be used to send data, image, voice andvideo files published on a web page to one or more communicationdevices. As shown in FIG. 5; data (51) published on a web page (10) canbe sent to a mobile communication device (13) using the principles ofthe invention. 4) Based on the recitals of the present invention, themeans and method described can be used to send data, voice, image andvideo published in an offline source, such as MS Word, to one or morecommunication devices. In the above mentioned variations of the presentinvention, preferably means are provided to save, archive and organizethe said files in the communication device. Preferably, a reader and aviewer program are provided to enable optimal display of the contents ofthe said files in communication devices.

The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate anddescribe exemplary embodiments of the methods and systems of the presentinvention. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the inventionto any precise form disclosed. It will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes may be made and equivalents may besubstituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of theinvention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation or material to the teachings of the inventionwithout departing from the essential scope. Therefore, it is intendedthat the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosedas the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but thatthe invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope ofthe claims. The invention may be practiced otherwise than isspecifically explained and illustrated without departing from its spiritor scope. The scope of the invention is limited solely by the followingclaims.

1. A method of transmitting contact information to an approved mobilecommunication device, comprising: receiving an input representative ofdesired contact information located on a first web page and an inputrepresentative of the identity of a desired mobile communication device;saving information representative of the desired contact information ina contact information database; determining whether the desired mobilecommunication device is an approved device; transmitting to the desiredmobile communication device information representative of a notificationto send the information representative of the desired contactinformation; receiving an input from the desired mobile communicationdevice information representative of an acceptance to receive theinformation representative of the desired contact information; andtransmitting to the desired mobile communication device informationrepresentative of the desired contact information.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, further comprising transmitting to the desired mobilecommunication device a prompt to a user of the desired mobilecommunication device to enable the user of the desired mobilecommunication device to download a first mobile phone application inresponse to determining whether the desired mobile communication deviceis an approved device.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprisingautomatically saving the information representative of the desiredcontact information in a memory of the desired mobile communicationdevice.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein saving determining andtransmitting are performed by a single server.
 5. The apparatus of claim4, wherein the input representative of the desired contact informationlocated on a first web page and the input representative of the identityof the desired mobile communication device is sent from the desiredmobile communication device.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereindetermining includes confirming the absence of a first mobile phoneapplication in a memory of the desired mobile communication device. 7.The apparatus of claim 6, wherein determining includes comparing theinput representative of the identity of the desired mobile communicationdevice with a listing of approved mobile communication devices.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 1, further comprising transmitting by the firstmobile phone to a server the information representative of instances ofcontact information retrieval by the desired mobile communicationdevice.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising transmitting bythe first mobile phone to a server the information representative ofinstances of contact information retrieval by the desired mobilecommunication device.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprisingtransmitting to the desired mobile communication device advertisementinformation with the information representative of the desired contactinformation.
 11. A method of transmitting contact information to anapproved mobile communication device, comprising: receiving an inputrepresentative of desired contact information located on a first webpage and an input representative of the identity of a desired mobilecommunication device; saving information representative of the desiredcontact information in a contact information database; confirming thatthe desired mobile communication device is an approved device;transmitting to the desired mobile communication device informationrepresentative of a notification to send the information representativeof the desired contact information; receiving an input from the desiredmobile communication device information representative of an acceptanceto receive the information representative of the desired contactinformation; and, transmitting to the desired mobile communicationdevice information representative of the desired contact information.12. The method of claim 11, wherein confirming includes determiningwhether a memory of the desired mobile communication device includes adesired version of a first mobile phone application.
 13. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising receiving information representative of awireless carrier and information representative of an operating systemfrom the desired mobile communication device.
 14. The method of claim11, further comprising recording by a first mobile phone applicationinformation representative of instances of contact information retrievalby the desired mobile communication device.
 15. The method of claim 14,further comprising transmitting by the first mobile phone to a serverthe information representative of instances of contact informationretrieval by the desired mobile communication device.
 16. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising automatically storing by a first mobilephone application the information representative of the desired contactinformation in a memory of the desired mobile communication device. 17.The method of claim 11, further comprising prompting the user whenviewing the web page to enter information representative of the identityof a desired mobile communication device.
 18. The method of claim 1further comprising transmitting to the desired mobile communicationdevice advertisement information with the information representative ofthe desired contact information.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein theadvertisement information includes one or more of data, voice, image orvideo.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein saving determining andtransmitting are performed by a single server.